Is this the ultimate bonfire night party?

The Flaming Tar Barrels of Ottery St. Mary provide a bonfire night out with
added adrenaline

On Wednesday this week, communities around the country will gather in parks, gardens and village greens to join in the centuries-old tradition of firing explosives into the night sky and burning the effigy of a long-dead traitor – all while standing the requisite 25 meters from the action, of course.

In the Devontown of Ottery St. Mary, however, November 5th takes rather more vigorous shape. Each year is marked by the Tar Barrels festival: an ancient tradition pre-dating Guy Fawkes, in which men, women and children as young as 7 years old set light to wooden barrels lined with tar, and run through the streets with them. On their heads.

The Tar Barrels Festival is one of the few remaining ancient fire festivals in the UK, and the participants guard their tradition fiercely. In fact, it could be the only bonfire night event which actively tries to dissuade people from coming – and not without good reason.

“A lot of the complaints we get afterwards are from people who didn't know what to expect,” says Andy Wade of the Ottery Tar Barrels Festival Committee. “People come expecting a firework display, and don't realise what they're coming to.”

What visitors should expect, certainly by the time the event reaches its climax at midnight, is to stand among a pulsating crowd of up to 20,000 people while an understandably frantic group of men wrestle with an inferno, right in the midst of the spectators. The fire brigade are on hand, but take a back seat. There are no barriers, there is no safety net. This is real fire, and the heat of the flames is immense.

One of the most remarkable things about the Tar Barrels festival is that it still exists in today's health-and-safety obsessed environment. The organising committee face ever-rising insurance costs and an act of sabotage in 2009 nearly forced the event to cease. Despite this the festival continues with gusto, to the joy of spectators and participants alike.